Ebed-Melech: Because You Trust in Me

“Go and tell Ebed-Melech the Cushite … `I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the Lord’ ” (Jeremiah 39:16a, 18 NIV).

This message was important because it came to Jeremiah even while he was kept a prisoner in the courtyard of the guard. Now what was so special about Ebed-Melech?

He was a Cushite; a foreigner. And he was an official in the king’s palace. But was that all? Why did God remember him?

It was because he spoke up to help Jeremiah when the prophet’s own people had put him into a cistern full of mud where he sank down. He himself got permission from the king and went in person with a team of men to help Jeremiah out of that pit!

Why did he do that? The above verse tell us the reason. He trusted in God, the God of Israel. That made him take a bold step in saving God’s prophet even though many powerful people were swinging the king’s heart against Jeremiah at that time.

Saving Jeremiah was not just an act of kindness. It was much more than that since it came from a foreigner. It was his trust in God that made him do it. What kind of difference does trust in God make in your life? Does it stir you to action when it is needed the most?

As you look at Ebed-Melech, you will find him being rewarded by God in a very special way. The word of the Lord then came to Jeremiah, “Go and tell Ebed-Melech.”

Let this be a lesson to you. God remembers your acts of kindness towards His servants. God acknowledges your trust in Him. Ebed-Melech was told that his life was going to be spared even when God was sending disaster to their midst. He was promised that he will not fall by the sword of the enemies.

Maybe God’s word to you may not exactly be the same. But the point to be noted is that God does acknowledge your trust in Him and your act of kindness prompted by that. So continue to trust God and do good.

More Manna:

But David Remained in Jerusalem, Woman Bathing

I Gave You a Land On Which You Did Not Toil

There Is No Flaw in You

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